News Release
Tonasket Ranger District host GEAR UP students
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USDA Forest Service
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July 18, 2008
For the second year, the Tonasket Ranger District hosted GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) students in their “Tripod: A Landscape for Learning” program. In mid June, 7th, 8 th, and 9 th graders from Oroville, Tonasket, and Omak school districts worked with natural resource professionals in the fire affected landscape. Inspired by the national movement to get “More Kids in the Woods”, the program seeks to introduce children to the ecological processes taking place in their own backyards. It also helps them develop a sense of place, and an understanding that processes occurring in the natural world affect them, and that decisions they make now and as adults affect these processes.
On July 27, 2006 , a lightning strike started the Tripod Fire on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest . Burning in heavy timber and beetle killed lodgepole pine and spruce; the fire grew to more than 175,000 acres, and was not officially declared out until well after snowfall in October. This natural event radically changed the “backyard” of children living in the Okanogan valley. The altered landscape gives us a prime opportunity to include kids in monitoring activities, allowing them to watch the changes that occur in the post fire landscape over time.
The GEAR UP program targets low income areas and emphasizes proficiency in science and math. It began in 2006 with middle school students, but the current group will stay together in the program until each class graduates from high school. All participants, including the Oroville, Tonasket and Omak School Districts, the Colville Confederated Tribes, the Nature Conservancy, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Central Washington University, the Wenatchee Valley College, Americorps and the Methow Conservancy, are dedicated to improving environmental literacy, appreciation for the outdoors, and the health and future of our community’s children.
Research suggests that there is a connection between physical activity and learning, and has shown that children benefit from lessons learned through experiences. “It didn’t take a research project however to see how much the kids loved pounding in stakes and counting the plants coming up in the black”, said Patti Baumgardner Tonasket Ranger District Program Manager. Students quantified the difference in plant cover from this year to last and were amazed at the difference. They loved digging soil pits and seeing burn intensities marked by the color of the dirt; watching woodpeckers and nuthatches; chasing insects with their nets and staring at water life under dissecting scopes. The adults had fun too, and all who participated in the pilot year enthusiastically agreed to return.
“We expect this program to result in lasting understanding of ecological processes and concepts. We also expect students to explore careers in natural resources. The agency will gain valuable monitoring data, but more importantly, it will gain a new generation of stewards with a life long interest in the state of the environment, “said Baumgardner.
Photos taken of Tonasket Ranger District hosting GEAR UP students are available at: www.fs.fed.us/r6/oka/news/news-releases.shtml
